How long can a cat stay out?

[hartof]

I've been working from home for the last year and in that year my cat has started to go out. He comes and goes through the day and is in for good at around 3pm. But I've just been made redundant and when I get a new job I assume I'll be office based.

We don't have a normal back door just patio windows and DH is reluctant to put a cat flap in the glass. I'll be out from 8am-5.30. This is too long isn't it? But if I leave him in the house he'll be distressed the reason I started letting him out was he was peeing on the floor every Monday. This stopped when he started going out.

Fluffycloudland77 Haribo sometimes uses the greenhouse as his personal toilet tray so that's another reason why I need to keep him out when I start using it again to grow seeds.

I don't think he would understand the concept of a cat flap. He can push open doors but can't (won't) pull doors open.

We have a cat flap through the wall with a tunnel I was sceptical but it looks neat and was cheaper than I thought!